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| By Chris Morrison | 7 Comments » |
We’ve been watching San Francisco developer LOLapps with interest since the company decided last year to focus on games over its highly successful user-generated quiz business. While it hasn’t had a massive hit gaming yet, LOLapps has produced a few solid successes to date.
Several of these have been in conjunction with big brands. Last December, the company published Dante’s Inferno on Facebook to help hype up Electronic Arts’ release of the console version several months later. At the time, it looked like a possible template for future collaboration between social and traditional game companies.
However, that phase is now over for LOLapps, according to CEO Arjun Sethi. When we talked with Sethi last week, he said that the company is more interested in becoming a brand of its own, and will only publish original titles of its own.
Like many other developers, Sethi sees an inflection point approaching on Facebook. “People will begin demanding better experiences,” he told us. Unlike the me-too social games created last year, original experiences and creativity will be valued.
Another major change taking place at LOLapps is a switch to Facebook Credits. A number of developers are testing Credits or offer them alongside an in-game virtual currency, but LOLapps will join CrowdStar as the only other large developer to use Credits exclusively.
It’s a big move, but Sethi says that he’s been satisfied so far with Credits. “We haven’t seen a significant drop in transactions. To the contrary, we’re starting to see increased usage,” he said. “We’re actually excited to figure out how to use Credits in our games.”
In general, Sethi is also happy with Facebook’s platform, and says that LOLapps has actually grown after each of Facebook’s policy changes (a number of larger developers saw decreases after Facebook’s notification adjustments). For LOLapps, the key is in learning more about users through Facebook’s data APIs. “It should be our job to know our users better than we’ve known them in the past,” Sethis said.
LOLapps’ last big release was Garden Life, which is currently at around a million monthly active users. The company has several more games in the pipeline, which it expects to release over the summer.
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June 20th, 2010 at 6:41 am
[...] brands, like the Dante’s Inferno tie-in game they launched with EA in December. According to Inside Social Games, the company is now moving away from branded [...]
June 27th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Well, I guess it’s a matter of picking a strategy and executing well and I can see the reasoning behind the decision to not deal with branded games, especially in combination with an exclusive move to Facebook Credits. Working in original IP only is definitely a tried and true approach — if you have the mojo to make (or at least be able to identify and acquire) the winning IP and enough distribution muscle to back it up.
Success or failure in going with a full or partial branded game strategy may be a bit more nuanced, though:
* Have you chosen the right brand for the platform and its audience?
* Do you have the right partner? How much will they be involved? Is that a good or a bad thing?
* Is the overall implementation sound? Is it a blow-out entertainment experience or would this title not perform well, whether it had a brand attached to it or not?
Branded games do get a bad rap, often much deserved. However, I think it’s possible for companies to successfully execute on having branded games in the mix in a way that makes it worth their time, both in terms facilitating growth and delivering on any potential upside.
July 8th, 2010 at 9:12 am
[...] it make money from its international user base, even as it signs up more developers to exclusive contracts and experimental trials. While developers are unhappy about the 30% fee that Facebook takes out of [...]
July 13th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
[...] exclusively use its virtual currency, Credits, in their applications. So far, it has CrowdStar and LOLapps using Credits exclusively as the direct payment method, with rivals like Zynga participating but [...]
July 16th, 2010 at 7:38 am
[...] meeting with developers to try to get them to use their virtual currency. Facebook has CrowdStar, LOLapps and RockYou using Credits exclusively in their games. Zynga, the creator of the most popular social [...]
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:05 am
[...] Facebook intends for Credits to get more users buying more virtual goods on third party applications than they have through third party payment options. It is experimenting with a variety of promotions to help spur the currency along, including giveaways, and special advertising for third-party developers who adopt it — also signing up other developers to exclusive five-year deals, including CrowdStar and Lolapps. [...]
July 23rd, 2010 at 9:12 am
[...] the company officially announced a new contract with Facebook this Wednesday. Before RockYou, we reported the switch by LOLapps, which is known for both games and quizzes. Along with CrowdStar, Credits’ biggest [...]